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time trial

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Love-The-HillsHaving grown up in the flat terrain of Northern Germany, I used to absolutely despise hills. If there’s one thing I really don’t like it’s slowness, and that applies to everything in life. I’m terribly impatient.

Cycling up hills doesn’t give you the excitement of going fast on a bike and quite frankly cycling up hills is hard work. I was also put off by the fact that as one of the bigger athletes ‘im always on the losing end against some of the slender running girls, as soon as we are faced with an incline.

Planning a block of training can really determine your goals. But to be of much use they have got to be SMART. Some of you may already be bored now – yeah, yeah, we all know this, S for specific, M for measurable, A for achievable, R for relevant, and T for time-bound. But do you actually do it? I was most recently reminded of this concept when flicking through my notes from the BTF level 2 coaching course.

So in practise, does this actually work? At the beginning of the year I wrote on a piece of paper – amongst other things – by the end of July I want to have improved my 10 mile time trial PB to sub 23 minutes. Why is this a much better goal than ‘I want to get faster on the bike’?

While I love being a triathlete I’m also very fond of time trialling. There are several reasons for this.

Cycling is my strength, so in the more local events I often stand a chance of winning. I know we always say it’s the taking part that counts, but winning is lots of fun, too.

Time trials are cheap. Open events are normally about £8, evening club events £2.50, and usually there’s tea and cake for a few pence donations afterwards.

They are good training. Try as you might, race intensity is always higher than training. Plus I love to race my bike and share my sport with others.